Whistleblower Report Corroborates FBI Abuses

The House Judiciary Committee received a new whistleblower complaint Tuesday morning corroborating previous reports of political retaliation within the FBI.

On Friday, attorneys sent a complaint for an anonymous supervisory special agent (SSA) to the Justice Department inspector general and the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility. The complainant, who is a registered Democrat and has won awards as an agent for work against child trafficking, reports witnessing colleagues within the FBI experience political retribution. The whistleblower also claimed to have been retaliated against. The complaints were submitted to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government and shared with The Federalist.

According to the disclosures, the latest whistleblower “witnessed firsthand as an SSA how the FBI’s Security Division improperly suspended or revoked employees’ security clearances whose political views, medical views, or even ethnicity were questioned by Security Division leadership.”

“The outcomes of clearance investigations and adjudications were often pre-determined by the Division’s acting Deputy Assistant Director and the acting Section Chief responsible for security clearance investigations and adjudications, who often overruled line staff and even dictated the wording of documents in the clearance process,” the disclosure read.

The special agent in question was suspended last year after serving half a decade as an SSA since 2018. Protected disclosures were particularly made against Jeffrey Veltri, the acting deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Security Division, and Dena Perkins, the acting section chief for the Security Integrity and Investigations Section.

“SSA Client quickly discovered that acting [Section Chief] Perkins and acting [Deputy Assistant Director] Veltri were often inappropriately involved in individual clearance cases throughout those cases’ time in [the Security Integrity and Investigations Section], from referrals to investigations to adjudications and appeals,” the disclosure read. “Perkins and Veltri would frequently make initial judgments about cases based on their own prejudices, then would refuse to move from their first impressions — regardless of what facts an investigation uncovered.”

The latest disclosures outline myriad cases in which the whistleblower witnessed retaliation, including the clearance investigation of Staff Operations Specialist Marcus Allen.

A Marine combat veteran who was suspended without pay for more than two years, Allen had his security clearance revoked over making protected disclosures related to FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony following the turmoil on Jan. 6, 2021. The FBI walked back its retaliation before the DOJ inspector general released a final report on the improper suspension, but a whistleblower protection group is calling on the agency watchdog to release the report anyway.

According to the whistleblower disclosures submitted to lawmakers, Veltri and Perkins colluded to suspend Allen’s clearance despite the agency investigator concluding his “Allegiance to the United States” was not in doubt.

“Perkins overruled the initial investigator and reassigned the case to another investigator to move forward with suspending [Staff Operations Specialist] Allen’s clearance,” the disclosure read.

As Allen waited for the Justice Department inspector general to review his case, the FBI denied requests to seek other work or accept public charity. Allen remained subject to gift rules for public officials despite no pay or public duties for more than two years.

The whistleblower behind the latest complaints made protected disclosures about superiors’ misconduct last summer and was disciplined by the end of September for his “attitude,” according to the report submitted to Congress.

Other FBI whistleblowers who’ve alleged agency retaliation include Garret O’Boyle and Steve Friend, both of whom blew the whistle on the weaponization of the agency by far-left ideologues.

O’Boyle told lawmakers the FBI moved him from the Great Plains to Washington, D.C., where he was suspended on his first day after making protected disclosures to Congress. O’Boyle said the FBI had been inappropriately designating white supremacy as a top national security threat in order to justify broad surveillance.

Friend also suffered retaliation for objections made to the FBI’s response to suspects at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Friend told lawmakers the FBI deployed a SWAT team to arrest such an individual in the Orlando area.

“I’ve arrested over 150 violent criminals in my career, I’ve never required a SWAT team to do it,” Friend said during a recent congressional hearing.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.